{"id":268685,"date":"2021-12-02T12:14:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T17:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=268685"},"modified":"2021-12-02T12:14:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T17:14:41","slug":"leadership-and-participation-of-persons-with-disabilities-toward-an-inclusive-accessible-and-sustainable-post-covid-19-world-unrwa-commissioner-general-statement","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/leadership-and-participation-of-persons-with-disabilities-toward-an-inclusive-accessible-and-sustainable-post-covid-19-world-unrwa-commissioner-general-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"“Leadership and Participation of Persons with Disabilities Toward an Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable Post-Covid 19 World” – UNRWA Commissioner-General Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

2021 theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities:\u00a0\u201cLeadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Covid-19 global pandemic highlighted the deep inequalities that exist in our world.\u00a0 Over the past year, we have collectively witnessed the world\u2019s most vulnerable populations fall through social safety nets and face increasingly insurmountable barriers to basic services.\u00a0Persons with disabilities have been amongst the most negatively impacted, with new barriers added to pre-existing ones: they have had more difficulty exercising preventative measures due to inaccessible communication, and barriers to accessing WaSH facilities; in many contexts, persons with disabilities have not been adequately considered and prioritized to access health care due to a lack of understanding of the heightened risk they might face and negative perceptions about their value in society<\/a>[1]<\/a>. Children with disabilities have struggled to keep up with remote learning, due to inaccessible platforms that are not always customized to their specific needs. These are just some examples of the factors that have compounded the lack of access to services faced by persons with disabilities, increasing their invisibility, and further deepening their exclusion from society.[AT1]<\/a>\u00a0[KR2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Often trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and disability, many persons with disabilities we already in a vulnerable situation pre-Covid; many were therefore unprepared for the pandemic and associated movement restrictions as they lacked the resources to stock up on food supplies and essential medicine. Findings from an UNRWA assessment conducted in Syria Field Office revealed that surveyed Palestine refugees with disabilities lacked access\u00a0to basic medical supplies and services<\/a>[AT3]<\/a>\u00a0[KR4]<\/a>\u00a0[2]<\/a>. In Gaza and the West Bank, people with disabilities already had difficulties accessing services and information,\u00a0and the pandemic significantly exacerbated this situation<\/a>[AT5]<\/a>\u00a0[KR6]<\/a>\u00a0[3]<\/a>\u00a0due to the largely inaccessible manner in which Covid-19 preventative measures were communicated. Surveys conducted by organizations working with women and girls with disabilities in the West Bank and Gaza highlighted a significant\u00a0need of psychological counselling<\/a>[4]<\/a>. A\u00a0study by UNICEF<\/a>\u00a0conducted in Gaza has shown that 64 per cent of children with disabilities experienced violence from caregivers and parents who were unable to cope with the economic burden caused by the pandemic[5]<\/a>. In Jordan, 46 per cent of Palestine refugee households with a member with disability did not have the\u00a0necessary means to purchase medicine<\/a>[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While UNRWA rapidly\u00a0adjusted its operations\u00a0<\/a>[AT7]<\/a>\u00a0[KR8]<\/a>\u00a0 by providing home visits and delivery of essential items to some of its most vulnerable clients, including persons with disabilities, to ensure their needs were identified and addressed, lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic have renewed our commitment to ensure those who are most at risk of being left behind are assisted first. We acknowledge that this can only be done by taking conscious steps to empower those who are most at risk of exclusion, creating a space in which voices are heard, and equal participation is possible.<\/p>\n

In 2021, UNRWA initiated a revision of its\u00a0Disability Inclusion Policy<\/em>\u00a0to ensure that the meaningful empowerment and participation of persons with disabilities is explicitly referenced to better reflect our continued commitment to engaging men, women, girls, and boys with disabilities in our field activities and services. The\u00a0updated policy<\/a>[AT9]<\/a>\u00a0[KR10]<\/a>\u00a0, consistent with the rights-based approach, emphasizes the necessity of systematic identification of persons with disabilities, their needs, and the barriers they face, recognizes the role of intersectionality in heightening vulnerability and risk, and commits to ensuring essential services are continuously adapted to the specific needs of persons with disabilities. Finally, the new policy reaffirms our commitment to ensuring the meaningful participation of person with disabilities in the planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and review of UNRWA policies and interventions that affect them.<\/p>\n

We cannot move\u00a0toward an inclusive, accessible, and sustainable post-COVID-19 world\u00a0<\/strong>without the\u00a0leadership and meaningful participation of persons with disabilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0IASC Covid-19 Response: Applying the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a>\u00a0UNRWA SFO, Socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on Palestine refugees in Syria, (August 2020), internal document<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a>\u00a0Occupied Palestinian Territory Covid-19 Response Plan<\/em>:\u00a0by the Humanitarian Country Team; 24 April 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a>\u00a0Covid-19 Protection Needs Identification and Analysis in the state of Palestine: Child Protection Area of Responsibility, Global Protection Cluster, November 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a>\u00a0Covid-19 Protection Needs Identification and Analysis in the state of Palestine: Child Protection Area of Responsibility, Global Protection Cluster, November 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6]<\/a>\u00a0Rapid Socio-economic study of the effects of Covid-19 on Palestine Refugees in Jordan; UNRWA; June 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[AT1]<\/a>Can you pls give examples of the new barriers?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[KR2]<\/a>added<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[AT3]<\/a>Why?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[KR4]<\/a>done<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[AT5]<\/a>How?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[KR6]<\/a>done<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[AT7]<\/a>How?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[KR8]<\/a>added<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[AT9]<\/a>Concretely what does the policy offer?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0[KR10]<\/a>Done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The policy offers:<\/p>\n

-Intersectionality of risk factors<\/p>\n

-Participation and empowerment.<\/p>\n

-Identification<\/p>\n

-Data disaggregation<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These elements will provide the basis of the framework to disability inclusion; the policy itself is quite broad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2021 theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities:\u00a0\u201cLeadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world.\u201d   The Covid-19 global pandemic highlighted the deep inequalities that exist in our world.\u00a0 Over the past year, we have collectively witnessed the world\u2019s most vulnerable populations fall through social safety […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1338],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,6636,2533,1745,2097],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-268685","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-statement","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-disabilities","document-subject-health","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-social-issues","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/268685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/268685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=268685"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=268685"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=268685"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=268685"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=268685"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=268685"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=268685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}